A 38-year-old software engineer was killed and a guard was injured when they were hit by a speeding car in the parking lot of an upscale residential complex in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore on Wednesday evening, after a fight between residents and the family of the car owner, police said. Police arrested Mohit Chaudhary and his father Kuldeep Chaudhary on Thursday following a video of the incident, in which Mohit was seen beating a woman childcare worker and Champa Pathak. In his car, it was widely circulated on social media.
Pandey, a software engineer working for Infosys, died in a Bombay hospital, police said.
A fight broke out between residents of the Sagarshree Enclave building in Shiv Vatika town and the family of the car owner over renting a penthouse apartment to an online rental company.
“The incident occurred on Wednesday night at 10:30 pm in Shiv Vatika town, located on Highway 11. Kuldeep Chaudhary, a resident of the town’s Sagarshree Enclave building, had rented a penthouse apartment through an online portal. Locals were objecting to guests arriving on a daily basis and sometimes late at night,” said Lasudiya town inspector Tarnesh Soni.
“Last night, the residents cut off the electricity to his apartment. Upon seeing this, Kuldeep Chaudhary came downstairs. In response, he cut off the electricity to the residents’ apartments. This led to a physical altercation. Kuldeep called his son Mohit. He arrived in a car. He first hit a female care worker and then hit Shamba Pandey,” the police officer said.
The deceased’s husband, Saurabh Pandey, said the family moved into the building on March 13 with their two children and came out to see what was happening. He said: “We heard some noise, so we went down to see what was happening in the parking area. We saw a physical altercation. In the midst of the chaos, the apartment owner’s son arrived in a car and hit my wife and an employee. He tried to hit me as well, but I miraculously managed to escape.”
Residents claimed that the penthouse was not part of the original building plan but was added later. They said they complained to the construction company about access to the penthouse late at night, but no action was taken.
Gaurav Naik, president of the association, said nearly 3,000 people live in the town and the penthouse was built illegally.
Sony said that the police confiscated the surveillance camera footage that recorded the entire incident, and are investigating the case.
